Collection Information
Size: 0.3 Linear feet
Summary: Scrapbook compiled by Greenbaum relating to various artists; and untranscribed interviews, including two of Herman Somberg conducted by Greenbaum, ca. 1965; two of Greenbaum conducted by Vivienne Wechter, 1961 and 1978; and one of Greenbaum conducted by Hilda Weltman, 1968.
The scrapbook contains photographs of Greenbaum and artists George Segal, Miles Forst, and Willem de Kooning; photographs of works of art by Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Chryssa, Isamu Noguchi, Will Barnet, Barbara Hepworth, and Ilya Bolotowsky; sketches by Herman Somberg and Henry Pearson; a sketch of Greenbaum by Hugo Weber; a catalog, "The 30's -- Painting in New York"; clippings; and printed miscellany.
The interviews of Somberg conducted by Greenbaum include one (5 5" tapes) in which Somberg discusses Pop and Op movements; artist's motivations; realism vs. reality and tradition vs. modern art; the elements of structure, texture, composition and pigment in modern art; social commentary in painting; "pure painting"; Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, and Willem de Kooning; happenings; and Somberg's disdain for art history. In the second interview (1 5" tape), painter Raymond Hendler is also present; they discuss their favorite television shows, an Op exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, and the meanings of the words "good," "like," "taste," and opinion" in relation to contemporary art.
The interviews of Greenbaum, include: one (on 2 5" tapes), conducted by Hilda Weltman, July 13 & 20, 1968 in which Greenbaum speaks of the conflicts and opportunities of American artists and his views on Pop art, strobe lights, civil rights, religion, existentialism, the Catholic Church, Vietnam, technology, hippies, and demonstrations at Columbia University; one (on 1 7"tape) conducted by Viviene Wechter, 1961 wherein Greenbaum speaks of collecting, art and affordability, abstract art, the arrangement of paintings on walls, his collection, and artists as personalities independent of their aesthetic; and the third, conducted in 1978, also by Wechter (on 1 cassette) for a radio program entitled "Today's World" on FM radio station WFUV.